Nightly Stroll
by Anlora
Summary: Icicle Jr. wanders around the Manta-Sub at late hours and encounters Tigress for some flirting, questions and surprises.


**A/N: When I first got the idea and started planning this fic I had something slightly different in mind but the story kind of took another path and how could I say no to it? It's intended as a one-shot but if someday I get the itch I might right something to accompany it, all depends. **

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An insistent buzzing roused Junior from his sleep. It was the screen mounted on the wall alerting him that he had a video call. Who would want to talk to him at that ungodly hour? After some shuffling around his small room he finally found the remote and accepted the call.

"Dad!" Junior knew very well that calls from his dad usually brought bad news, but he couldn't help feel a bit happy that his father had bothered to contact him at all. "Did you call to praise your son on the capture of the justice brats?" He asked smugly.

"I'm more concerned about your inadequacy to stay off the floor during a simple battle," his father replied harshly.

"Oh yeah, that." Junior lowered his eyes to the floor and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. Of course even if the mission was a success Mr. Bigshot Icicle would always find out what he did wrong and blame him for any and all mishaps on the mission. And more often than not he was right. That little speedster had taken him out a few seconds into the fight and he didn't recover until it was over. And then knocked to the ground a second time by the beetle kid. Inadequacy at its best.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, still avoiding his father's eyes at all costs.

His father let out a heavy sigh. "Cameron, I will not let you tarnish the name I've built up with your incompetence. Do not fail me again," and with that the screen went black.

Junior slumped down on his bed clutching the sheets tightly. No matter what he did he couldn't make his father proud of him. Sometimes he'd wish he wished he was born without any powers, then maybe his dad wouldn't have forced him into this life of constant frustration and disappointment. Maybe he would have lived his life on petty thievery instead of high scale villainy.

"Come on Junior sulking isn't gonna change anything," he said to himself. The clock to his left indicated it was 2:17 am, perfect time for a midnight snack. He stood up and exited his room. The hallways were empty and eerily quiet. Black Manta must be very confident about their location because he didn't see a single guard patrolling around. Then again he had heard something about a midnight poker game in the break room. Wanting to avoid the guards he took a left turn to head to the kitchen. The cold floor under his bare feet was soothing, he saw no reason to power up at this time but the familiar cold made him feel safe. After several minutes in the same corridor he started to wonder exactly how long it was and hoped it wasn't a dead end. He was about to turn around when he heard a grunt and a loud thud up ahead. Curiosity got the best of him and he continued to the end of the hall and turned to the left where he saw a doorway with a bright light coming from it.

He peeked inside and saw that it was that Tigress chick. She was facing away from him, giving a punching bag one hell of a beating. She was wearing an orange sports bra and black exercise shorts that had captured all of his attention. Her dark hair was tied up in a messy bun and he had a clear view of the sweat drops sliding down her neck. He couldn't resist missing out on this perfect opportunity to seduce her with his charm. He entered the gym quietly and walked up behind her. She was still busy punching the hanging bag so she didn't notice when he leaned in to whisper something in her ear.

"Hey bab-" he was cut short by the impact of her foot to his gut. Junior was on the floor before he knew it, groaning and clutching his stomach. She really knocked the air out of him, both literally and figuratively. "Tough love huh."

"Reflex," she replied extending an arm to help him up. He was puzzled for a moment at the gesture but accepted, he must be wearing her down because skilled assassins rarely helped people get up from the floor.

"So what brings you out at this hour?" He asked as he leaned on the cylindrical red bag trying to get her attention.

"Needed to hit something" she said punching the bag only a few inches from his face. "What about you, felt like doing something stupid like freeze the kitchen?"

"Only if you want me to," he said. She didn't react to his words so he continued talking. "Sooo who's the poor sucker that made you this angry?" he questioned.

"Who said I'm angry at anyone?" She said curtly, stopping her punches and crossing her arms to glare at him.

"I think this guy over here might say otherwise," he pointed to the punching bag. "You just need to chill" he chuckled at his little joke. "Why don't you let me give you a nice massage?"

"Sure if you want me to break your icy neck. Why don't you go eat some ice cream or something," she replied starting to hit the bag again noticeably harder than before but he wasn't scared off that easily. He had absolutely no intention to move, even if his face was in serious danger of being re-arranged in its current position. "I'm just gonna beat you up if you stay here," said Tigress.

"So be it," he replied. She launched a punch at face but blocked it just in time. He was mid chuckle when her other fist hit his left cheek hard. He felt very sorry for the bag. "Ouch babe that hurt," he said rubbing the side of his face. He had learned to take a punch over the years but he wasn't immune to the pain and he'd surely had a bruise in the morning. "That was almost as cold as my father."

"Hmph," she grabbed her towel that had been hanging on top of the bag and wiped away the sweat on her face. "Sounds like someone has daddy issues, or was that another lame ice joke?" Tigress walked over to the water fountain neck next to the sofa in a corner of the gym putting her towel on the back of her neck as she walked. Junior had to admit, her beating the shit outta him only attracted him more to her. He headed over to the sofa and laid down on it staring at her as she bent down to refill her water bottle.

"They usually go hand in hand." He locked eyes with her when she looked up. She drank from her bottle so he took the opportunity to continue the conversation. "How 'bout you, have any folks? Or does the secret identity thing make that info classified?"

"That's none of your damn business." She pushed his legs off the couch to make room for herself emptying her bottle as she sat down. "And your relationship with your father is not exactly a secret _Junior_," she emphasized the last word as if to remind him that he was nothing more than a failed copy of his father. "Piggybacking on your dad's name is bound to cause some friction between you two."

Their eyes met again, his suddenly serious. "You seem to know a lot about daddy issues."

"Crime runs in my family, you could say I have experience. My dad treated me like one of his lackeys, it's what it is."

"Pfft yeah. Unless you're Aquapunk. Manta adores the guy." Resentment the words as he spat them out.

Tigress laid her head on the back of the sofa and stared at the ceiling. Her fingers started to play absentmindedly with some loose threads on the couch. "It's probably because he didn't know his dad until some time ago. Being trained to fight and kill since you're a kid is bound mess up the relationship on some level"

Junior raised an eyebrow at her. "Sounds like you and I have more in common than I thought. Dad and his pals would put all of their kids in these messed up training exercises. Survival of the fittest was their motto. Without a care in the world of the emotional trauma they probably caused us."

"Yeah…" Her mind seemed to be far away from the conversation and for a split second he could have sworn he saw the smallest tear ever forming in her eye.

"Ummm. You uh ok there?" He considered taking this opportunity to get his arms around her again but decided against it after the multiple hits she inflicted earlier.

She inhaled deeply and turned her face to look at him. Her eyes looked soft and vulnerable. Seeing the intimidating assassin like that was weird but sort of nice. It wasn't often he'd come across someone he could relate to about his demanding father. It reminded him of old times with the other kids. He'd lost contact with almost all of them over the years. He heard about Jade once in a while from his father saying what a success she is. And he did see Artemis that one time but hadn't heard from her since.

"Yeah, sure." She stood up and faced him, hands on her hips and a smirk on her face. "You up for a spar?"

Junior let out a low rough chuckle and stood to face his opponent. He had to admit he wasn't the best at hand to hand combat but he'd learn a thing or two when he was young. He decided to let her throw the first punch, as a gentleman should. Thankfully this time he was ready and avoided it before she could pull out any more sneaky tricks.

They started out slow, weighing each other out. He dodged more hits than he expected but didn't land as many on her as he would have liked. As she got faster he was forced to speed up, becoming sloppy and almost tripping over himself on several occasions. After several minutes of beating himself up internally about how pathetic he and his sparring abilities were he managed to fall into pace with her. They were moving at a steady rhythm, their bodies in synch like a defiant dance. Soon his breathing became heavy, betraying his fatigue. She still seemed good as new and she had been beating the hell out of that bag before he got there. It was incredibly embarrassing and it was only made worse when she noticed his slight panting.

A smile began to curl her lips as she abruptly increased the speed of her blows. He cursed under his breath as she landed a solid punch on his shoulder. "What's the matter Cam, can't keep up?"

"What?" He was thrown off for a second by her use of his old nickname and lowered his guard long enough for her to punch him in the face. The blinding pain caused him to stagger backwards and trip over some dumbbells on the floor. He hit his head hard but all of his attention was focused on his nose. Blood dripped from his nose and over his lips down to his chin. He cupped his hands around it and winced at the pain.

"Shit. Are you ok?" she said as he heard her approaching. He was still in shock and confused as to how exactly she knew his name. No one had called him Cam in a very long time; he goes by Icicle Junior now. Those thoughts seemed familiar to him. Her hands on his brought back his attention to his bleeding face. They were warm and calloused and very gentle as she removed his hands from his face for a better look at his nose.

"It may or may not be broken, I'm not sure," she said. Junior looked at her very seriously completely ignoring his injury.

"You called me Cam," he said bluntly. Her eyes widened in a mixture of realization and horror.

"No I didn't. You're just confused and lightheaded. Here let me go get some gauzes or the first aid kit or something," she began to get up but grabbed her arm. She looked back at him with annoyance and tugged at her arm but he refused to let go.

"The last time someone called me that was a very long time ago." He tried to look at her eyes but she was looking down at her lap. "And she's dead now."

He noticed that she clenched her fists, knuckles turning white. Her behavior was unsettling him; she acted as if she knew something.

"Tigress," he moved his head so that he was looking up at her. This time he was sure he saw tears in her eyes. "You know something."

He stayed silent for a moment, mulling everything over. It couldn't possibly be that, could it? Yet he continued to grow highly suspicious. He stared back up at her again and noticed she was fiddling with her necklace. Jewelry seemed kind of impractical for the gym, or anything else she did around there really. She looked back at him and wiped his eyes.

"I'm gonna get something for your nose." He let her go that time. Dragging himself up, he felt all of his blood rush to his head and got dizzy for a moment. He wondered if she would come back at all leaving him bloody, suffering and confused. As he ran scenarios in his head of how people would find his bled out corpse on the gym floor she returned with an ice pack, gauzes, paper towels and some pills.

"This might hurt," she warned as she started to dab away at the blood on his face. He flinched at the contact which only made the pain worse. "Hold still!" She grabbed his head in her hands and turned it so they were facing each other dangerously close. He examined her face as she treated him. Again there was something terribly familiar about the situation but he couldn't put a finger on it.

She finished cleaning him up and handed him a towel. "Put that in your mouth, I have to put your nose back in its place." He obeyed and was surprised when she placed each of her legs next to his, straddling him.

"Want a little more of this babe?" he teased.

"Don't get so cocky. It's easier in this position. And it also prevents you from running away crying. Ok so at the count of three. One, two, three." CRACK.

"Fuck!" Junior shouted. It still hurt a lot but his nose felt more normal. "Um thanks, I guess." For some reason she didn't move from on top of him, but he wasn't complaining. She was staring at him fiddling with her necklace again. "Like what you see?" He reached out his hand to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Do you want me to break your nose again?" She started to get off of him; his hand was still lingering along her neck. He pulled it back quickly to prevent any more bleeding but got tangled in her necklace and ripped it off.

Tigress gasped in terror as she took a few steps back from him. The necklace slipped from his grasp when he looked at her and saw before him Artemis where Tigress was supposed to be. He stood up quickly in shock, nausea and head pains attacking him as he approached her.

"Artemis? Is that really you? How are you even alive? Didn't Aquapunk kill you? Is this all some sort of elaborate plan or am I really woozy?"

"Keep your voice down Cam!" She closed the space between them to cover his mouth with her hand. "I can't afford to blow my cover. And give me back my necklace!" He crouched down to retrieve it and she yanked it out of his hands.

He felt so overwhelmed with different emotions that he hugged her tightly. It was a nice feeling, reminded him of when they were kids hiding from their fathers in small places. She hesitated for a moment but hugged him back just as fiercely clutching the back of his t-shirt as he felt drops fall on his shoulder. It was a quiet, controlled crying. No heavy breathing or panting. They had had to learn to cry silently in the dark as kids or would suffer a beating for showing weakness.

Even after all these years they were still suffering because of their fathers, because of the world they got thrown into at a young age. They had both stumbled about trying to find a way to fit into the life. Eventually they ended on opposing sides but the bond they formed had not faded, not entirely. As proof they stood there holding on to each other, supporting each other, caring for each other like they had so long ago, enjoying the warmth of each other amidst their thundering chaotic lives.


End file.
